“You broke up?”

She sniffed, wishing she had a napkin or tissue so she could blow her nose. She had a feeling that as the night progressed, she’d just cry more and more and she absolutely hated the idea of wiping her nose on her sleeve.

Julia sighed, trying to be patient but also wanting desperately to get up and go to the bar for another drink. “What happened?”

Hilary shook her head and shrugged. “I’m really not sure. We went out to dinner, and started talking about how little we’ve been seeing each other, and after a really LONG discussion, I said, ‘Well, maybe we should just break up, then.’ Not really meaning it, and he said ‘Okay’ and just left.”

“That’s it?”

Hilary looked up, her blue eyes rimmed with unshed tears. “Yes. That’s it.”

Another sigh, this time accompanied by a quick pat on her friend’s arm. “It’s going to be all over the papers by morning.”

“I know,” Hilary replied, trying not to groan. She felt awkward seeing herself plastered over tabloids, especially when all they said about her was, more often than not, false. With Kian by her side, it hadn’t seemed so bad, but she felt hallow and lost, trying to imagine dealing with the press on her own.

“It’ll be okay,” Julia was saying, breaking Hilary out of her depressing thoughts. “It’ll all blow over after a few days.”

“Sure,” Hilary said half-heartedly, taking a long swig of her drink and nearly choking as the alcohol flew down the back of her throat. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but tonight she’d made an exception.

“Don’t look now,” Julia stated evenly, positioning her body so she was blocking the dance floor’s view of her miserable friend. “But Nicky’s here.”

“Oh God,” Hilary moaned, putting her face in her hands. “I can’t see him now. He’ll be all full of sympathy and really sweet, as usual, and it’ll just make me feel worse.”

“Maybe we should sneak out?”

Hilary chuckled listlessly. “We could try, I suppose…” she trailed off, looking over Julia’s shoulder at Nicky and Georgina, who were smiling at each other and dancing happily. It wasn’t long ago that she and Kian had been doing the same, and the thought made Hilary’s stomach churn and her eyes well up.

“Nevermind,” Hilary said, straightening up and brushing at her eyes with the back of her hand. “They’ve seen us.”

Georgina and Nicky slowly made their way over to the girls’ table, and Hilary did her best to fix herself up using Julia’s compact as discreetly as possible.

“Hey!” Nicky called, waving a little when they finally broke through the crowd. He bent down and gave each girl a kiss on the cheek, then guided Georgina into a vacant seat between them, before going and retrieving his own.

“You don’t mind if we sit do you?” Georgina asked with a laugh, brushing some hair off her face.

“Not at all,” Hilary said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

Nicky sat down, slinging his arm across the back of his wife’s chair. “So, where’s good ole Ki tonight?”

Hilary visibly grimaced, and Julia noticed this, trying her best to butt in and change the subject.

“Pretty crowded here tonight,” Julia commented as nonchalantly as possible, while surveying the growing crowd below them on the dance floor.

Nicky looked from Julia to Hilary and back again. “What’s going on?”

Hilary’s shoulders sagged. There was no point in lying to Nicky…if Kian hadn’t told him, he probably just hadn’t gotten around to it. Obviously the demise of their relationship was a bigger deal to Hilary than it was to him.

“Kian and I broke up,” Hilary stated quickly, the words leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

“You WHAT?” Nicky exclaimed, turning in his seat to face her. “When?”

“Yesterday evening,” Hilary replied, suddenly engrossed in her fingernails.

Georgina put a sympathetic hand on Hilary’s arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Hil. We had no idea.”

Hilary shrugged, brushing at her eyes angrily as more tears threatened to fall.

Nicky looked completely confused. “But…I thought Kian…he was going to…why…?”

A laugh escaped Hilary’s mouth, and she was as surprised as the others. “I don’t know, Nicky. I just don’t know.”